Commercial radio ad revenue growth slows down, yet still up 8.8% for Q2 2022
Commercial radio advertising revenue has grown by 8.8% in the second quarter of 2022, reaching a total of $190.9 million, up from $175.4 in the same quarter last year. The Melbourne market saw the largest growth of 12.5% YOY to $63.9 million, making it just over one-third of the total metropolitan industry.
The last 12 months have seen a continued rise in advertising revenue for commercial radio, rising 9.3% in total compared to the 12 months ending in June 2021, in a year that was plagued by COVID restrictions.
New CRA CEO, Ford Ennals
Melbourne experienced the most growth compared to Q2 2021, however, this takes into account that during the same quarter last year, the city experienced a snap lockdown totaling two weeks across May and June.
The figures were compiled by Milton Data and supplied by industry body Commercial Radio Australia.
All other markets experienced growth in the June quarter, with Sydney up 8.2% to total $57.5 million, Brisbane up 4.3% to $28.4 million, Perth up 9.9% to $23.6 million, and Adelaide up 3.4% to $16.5 million.
CEO of CRA, Ford Ennals, in his first quarter in the role said the consistent growth indicated consumers returning to business as usual, and pre-COVID habits boosting advertiser confidence.
“Government spend and party political advertising for the election was a contributor to ad revenue growth in April and May but pleasingly we saw radio ad revenue growth maintained in June post-election after the dust had settled.”
SMI figures indicated that in May, during the election period the highest growth area was digital audio which was up 97.1%, while radio grew 37.6%.
Across just the month of June, the five metropolitan markets grow 6.6%, compared to 11.2 in May this year. Ad revenue totaled $68.4 million, compared to $64.2 million in June 2021. This figure was up from $66.3 million in May, as the recovery of the industry continues, with June figures in 2021 also considerably larger than May figures.
Thanks to the aforementioned lockdowns, Melbourne experienced the largest ad revenue growth in June of 14.4% after almost half of June last year was spent in strict lockdown conditions. The market generated $23.1 million in ad revenue, followed by Sydney which climbed 5.7% to $20.8 million, Perth up 2.6% to $8.5 million, with Brisbane relatively stagnant, up 0.5% to $10.3 million, while Adelaide contracted 1.6% overall to generate $5.6 million.
CRA recently reported findings that online audio listening habits are steadily rising, with the body also stating that with 12 million listeners across GfK survey four, the cumulative audience of 12 million was its highest on record.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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